WITH his broad smile and unfailingly polite manners, Gianfranco Zola is not the type of person you would have down for inflicting a “brutal experience” on to someone.

But ask Phil Neville about his first meeting with West Ham United’s manager and it’s easy to decipher from the body language of Everton’s captain that it was not an occasion he is eager to relive.

Back in 1999, when Zola was operating at the peak of his powers for Chelsea, Sir Alex Ferguson told Neville to follow the diminutive Italian from first minute to last to protect Manchester United’s FA Cup dreams. That, however, was easier said than done.

Though the game finished 1-1, Neville was pulled from left and right, back and forth by Zola’s magical running and left in a state of bewilderment by the time the final whistle sounded; for much of the game, Neville was marking shadows.

Zola’s boots, of course, have long since been hung up but the slick way he played is a style he wants West Ham United to emulate and that was very much apparent when Everton faced them at Upton Park in November.

For long periods of that game, the Blues had to play second fiddle as West Ham dominated possession but their lack of a killer instinct – added to the fact that Louis Saha was in top form – enabled Everton to pilfer three points.

Yet Neville expects Zola will be eager to right some wrongs this afternoon at Goodison Park and knows he and his team-mates will have to be on their guard.

“I remember being told to man mark him in an FA Cup game like it was yesterday and it was a brutal experience,” said Neville. “He was a little magician. Manchester United never man-marked anyone then but he was deemed worthy of special attention.

“If I’m honest, he never gave me a kick. He was probably one of the best players in England at the time, not to mention something of a pioneer, as he was one of the first foreigners to come and play here.

“He had a style about the way he did things on the pitch and it is no surprise that he has taken that into management; when you played to such a high standard, you don’t always transfer it but he is giving every indication that he might just do that.”

Clearly Neville holds Zola in high regard but that will standing for nothing here, as Everton seek to bring their home campaign to a successful conclusion and, for that matter, to do it with a swagger.

Only two sides have been given heavy beatings at Goodison this season – Bolton thumped 3-0 in February, while four unanswered goals flattened Wigan – and Neville would like to see that statistic improve.

Aside from boosting Everton’s hopes of finishing fifth, Neville feels a scoring spree would impact positively on the strikers at Goodison before they are charged with the task of winning the FA Cup final.

“I think it would be nice to score some goals – to get more than one or two before the Cup final would give everyone a lift and raise our confidence levels,” said Neville. “In the last couple of games, we haven’t created too many chances.

“We are in a difficult situation with regard the final as we can say all the right things beforehand about concentrating on the league but I’m pretty sure everyone is thinking about Chelsea.

“We have got to remain professional, though, and we know there is a job to do; that’s why a couple of goals would do us the world of good; we’ve got nothing to lose against West Ham and we know we can go out and enjoy ourselves.”

Victory would also provide the last bit of evidence that the aberration of the opening weeks has now been forgotten, the thoughts that Everton were on a collision course for disaster have long since been expelled.

The skipper, however, is calling for a big effort to give supporters a happy send-off ahead of the final; after all, when Everton went five games without getting off the mark in terms of winning at Goodison, patience was stretched to the limit.

“That form wasn’t something we ever expected to happen,” said Neville. “Our home form has been formidable down the years; Goodison is an intimidating ground, an old-fashioned fortress and that’s why teams were coming to play with men behind the ball.

“Maybe we found it tough to deal with at first. But that comes with the territory if you are successful and thankfully we managed to overcome it in the end; now we just want one more positive result in front of our fans.

“We are playing a team that is in a much better frame of mind than the one we played earlier in the season – Louis was absolutely brilliant that day – but we are confident that we can do it again. We have to be.”